Let’s concede that it was both a bit humorous and tasteless for a parent to wish the president a Merry Christmas and a Let’s go Brandon in the same sentence. The bigger story is how this ham-fisted White House staff could have put their boss on that phone in the first place. They seldom allow him off the leash. Maybe this is just one more example of their incompetence.
Just look at the original Brandon. He won a race and now is having trouble retaining sponsors. He’s treated like a leper. Woke corporate cowards (like the ones who contributed generously to Black Lives Matter) run for the tall grass whenever they fear a backlash from the noisy Left.
In a larger sense the entire Let’s go Brandon movement is much bigger than a race car driver or even this president. There is a growing majority of Americans who are tired of being talked down to. They are frustrated. They are angry. They are sick of double standards and the doublespeak.
People are fed up and they aren’t going to take it anymore.
The media is understandably nervous. They refer to this as all part of an insurrection. The truth is that a majority of Americans don’t believe that Trump colluded with the Russians. They do believe that the FBI illegally spied on his campaign and that there is something very suspicious about the election of Joe Biden.
Some 70 percent of Americans believe that the Wuhan virus actually originated in the Wuhan laboratories. Worse, that the research to make bat viruses more lethal to human beings was paid for in part with American tax dollars. This in spite of the lecturing and obfuscations by CDC officials which serve only to harden the opinions of those 70 percent.
The excuses and prevarications concerning our bungled and bloody retreat from Afghanistan reinforce the view that this administration is at once both inept and shameless. The admission that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs conspired with his Communist Chinese counterparts (without consequence) is beyond belief!
We are not supposed to see these double standards. This president made his first official act the cancellation of the Excel pipeline, effectively firing 10,000 hard working Americans. This followed shortly with the tacit approval of the Nord Stream pipeline from Russia to Germany. Americans must be vaccinated, carry proof, wear masks and present photo ID to travel. Illegal immigrants, not so much.
We’re asked to pretend that there is no cost for trillions of dollars in new spending. Money that we don’t have on programs that cannot work. Just like we’re told that the inflation we see all around us is transitory and this spending won’t be gasoline on the fire.
Crime is running rampant in our cities. Organized smash and grab robberies and carjackings may be common but they have nothing to do with the defund the police movement or liberal attempts to decriminalize crime. Move along folks, nothing to see here.
First the Left tried to pretend that critical race theory and bizarre sex education programs were not being taught to our kids. Parents knew better and when they took their complaints to the school board meetings our Justice Department labeled them domestic terrorists and dispatched the FBI to spy on them. When the Attorney General was called on the carpet he denied his own memorandum.
We see all of this.
We hear the nightly scoldings. We see the dismissive arrogance of the elites. Dr. Fauci proclaims that he is the science and the science is him. Anyone who disagrees is a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal.
The shabby attempts by this White House to smear Senator Manchin, calling him a liar, is but the latest example of their petty dishonesty.
It’s not just that they lie to us. It’s not just that there are no consequences for their actions, it’s that they insult us and our intelligence. They treat us like children or fools. Or both.
So Middle America found its voice through an expression that fits the mood.
The Let’s go Brandon phenomenon is really the manifestation of all these feelings now boiling in the body politic. Just as a volcano trembles before erupting, Let’s go Brandon is a warning. How many Congressional Democrats will be thrown into this molten lava next November remains to be seen.
But the Brandon movement isn’t going away anytime soon.
Gil Gutknecht served six terms in the U.S. House from Minnesota.